Representatives of the Public Prosecutor ’s Office have interrogated several witnesses of severe beating of the United Civil Party leader Anatol Lyabedzka. As we have informed, the politician was detained and beaten up by policemen during the unsanctioned opposition protest rally against the official results of the voting at parliamentary elections and referendum, held in Minsk on October 19. A. Lyabedzka had a concussion of the brain, fracture of three ribs and hematoma of kidneys. The beaten politician was taken to the police department of Lenin district of Minsk, but he felt unwell, and an ambulance took him to the emergency hospital.

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Today leader of the National Strike Committee of Entrepreneurs, member of the European coalition “Free Belarus” Valery Levaneuski was sent to the minimum-security colony # 22 in the settlement of Damanava, Ivatsevichy district, Brest region, and deputy head of the National Strike Committee of Entrepreneurs, Alyaksandr Vasilyew was sent to the colony in Orsha, Vitsebsk region. On September 7 the court of Lenin district of Hrodna found Valery Levaneuski and Alyaksandr Vasilyew guilty of public slander of Belarusian President connected with a grave crime (Article 368 Part 2 of the Criminal Code), and sentenced them to two years of imprisonment of the minimum-security colony. It was written in the verdict that the sentence “Come and say that you are against somebody’s skiing in Austria at your expense”, printed in leaflets, contains insult of honor and dignity of the president of the Republic of Belarus.

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Pollster Gallup/Baltic Surveys conducted an exit poll during Belarus`s 17 October referendum on lifting the constitutional two-term limit on the presidency and giving President Alyaksandr Lukashenka the chance to run for a third term in 2006. In a memorandum publicized after polling stations were closed, the group said Lukashenka`s proposal to clear the path to a presidency-for-life in the country was supported by just 48.7 percent of all eligible voters, leaving it below the 50 percent threshold required for such a constitutional amendment. The memorandum, signed by Gallup/Baltic Surveys Director Rasa Alisauskiene, stated that 13.3 percent of all eligible voters said "yes" in the referendum during early voting on 12-16 October and another 35.4 percent added their "yes" votes on 17 October.

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The staff of the Solidarnost labor newspaper are becoming increasingly concerned that the inquiry into last week’s mysterious and brutal murder of reporter Veronika Cherkasova will follow what they call a course convenient for authorities.

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An opposition member of the Belarussian parliament has asked for political asylum in Russia. Sergei Skrebets, the leader of opposition parliamentary group Republic, said a fictitious case had been instigated against him in Belarus, the Gazeta.Ru website reported. Skrebets sent a letter to the Russian president Vladimir Putin via common mail because the secretariat of Belarussian parliament refused to render him governmental communications.

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A week after a constitutional referendum and parliamentary elections, Belarus’ opposition leaders find themselves hospitalized or contemplating emigration, its parliament finds itself almost without parties, its media contemplating another murder--and its people with an ever more unassailable leader. That is the sum of a week that saw the opposition to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka briefly flare up to a new height of intensity--before fading back to pre-election levels as opponents of the regime contemplated what they could do next. Outraged by what Lukashenka hailed as a “convincing victory” on 17 October, thousands of Belarusians took to the streets of the Belarusian capital, Minsk. The demonstrations climaxed on 19 October, when a group of young protesters tried to break through police lines and reach Lukashenka’s residence. More than 50 people were detained and beaten, among them journalists of Russian TV-channels NTV and REN-TV, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter, and an Associated Press correspondent.

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This year in October the CIA has published a report of a special CIA councilor on mass destruction weapons in Iraq. An essential part of the report is describing the documents and evidence on cooperation of the Saddam Hussein and Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regimes in military equipment and technology trade in defiance of the UN sanctions. According to the estimation in the report, Belarusian president Lukashenka and Saddam had special relations. Lukashenka agreed to support Saddam because the Iraqi president supported the presidential; elections in Belarus in 2001.

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Half a year ago, on April 26, 2004, one of the leaders of Belarusian opposition, former Minister of Foreign Economic ties, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus, MP of the 12th Supreme Soviet Mikhail Marynich, was arrested and placed to the pre-trial detention center of the KGB. According to the law, now the law-enforcing agencies are to decide, whether to release him or to extend his imprisonment. The law-enforcing agencies have many times prolonged the term of investigation of the Marynich’s case, and his imprisonment. It is worth mentioning that in last four months no investigating actions were carried out. I this period the health status of Mikhail Marynich, as said by doctors, had deteriorated. But the authorities continue to keep him in the pre-trial detention center of the KGB.

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The man they call the last dictator in Europe wants his critics to get a life. "Try to calm down," President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus told the world the other day. "Look at your own problems."

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Police aborted an opposition demonstration in central Minsk on Monday, the eight consecutive day of protests against the officially announced results of the October 13-17 national referendum and parliamentary elections. Nine people appeared on Oktyabrskaya Square at 6 p.m. and unfurled Belarusian white-red-white flags and a banner reading, “Yes to Belarus, No to Lukashenko!”

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Poland’s Alliance of the Democratic Left has issued a statement protesting what the party calls the cruel treatment of some Belarusian opposition leaders including Nikolai Statkevich. Mr. Statkevich, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada” (BSDP), was sentenced to 10 days in jail for allegedly organizing unauthorized demonstrations in central Minsk on October 18 and 19.

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The Political Council of the United Civic Party (UCP) has adopted a statement describing the official results of the October 17 parliamentary elections and referendum as illegitimate.

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Aleksandr Lukashenko expressed a high opinion of the performance of election commissions in the run-up to and during the October 17 referendum and parliamentary elections.

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UNESCO Director-General Koi"chiro Matsuura today condemned the assassination of Veronika Cherkasova, a journalist for the independent Belarus newspaper Solidarnost, in Minsk on October 20. Mr Matsuura also voiced concern over reports of widespread attacks on freedom of the press in the country in recent months.

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As many as 38 students of European Humanities University (EHU) that was closed by the Belarusian education ministry this past July have started two-year courses at Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in Russia`s St. Petersburg.

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The Belarusian government has invited the public to take part in open sports events to be held in Minsk on Saturday. Aleksandr Lukashenko will participate in a 4x6km roller skiing relay scheduled to begin at 11 a.m, the press office of the Minsk City Executive Committee said.

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Statement of United States Mission to the OSCE: “The United States supports and respects the Belarusian people, their sovereignty and their right to democratically decide their future”.

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